World Briefing: November 9, 2024
Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, suggested that it would have been better for the Democratic Party if President Biden had abandoned his re-election campaign sooner and the party had then held a competitive primary process to replace him. In an interview on Thursday with The New York Times, Ms. Pelosi said what was widely reported around the time Mr. Biden dropped out: that she believed it was implicitly understood that his exit would be followed by an internal party competition for a new nominee, instead of an anointment of Vice President Kamala Harris. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Ms. Pelosi said. She added during the interview, which will be published in full on Saturday, “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.” - NYT
A Republican strategist and Trump campaign adviser says the United States' aim for ending the war in Ukraine is about finding peace not about returning territory. Bryan Lanza said that "Zelensky says his goal is to get Crimea back. Well, that's not the goal of the United States. And that's not the goal of the European nation states." He adds that if Zelensky's priority is "getting Crimea back and having American soldiers fight to get Crimea back" then he's on his own. "The priority of America is peace and to stop the killing." Yesterday, the AFP news agency, citing an anonymous senior Ukrainian official, said they confirmed that Elon Musk participated in a phone call with Trump and Zelensky. It followed a report by US news site Axios - BBC
Control of the U.S. House of Representatives is still too close to call. There is still a lot of outstanding votes in western states, like California, where there are multiple competitive races. Democrats need a net gain of 4 seats to win the majority. If that all holds, Democrats would be +6 and Republicans +5 for just a net gain of D+1. That would mean, if all that holds, Republicans would keep the House with a 3-seat majority - NPR
With virtually no food allowed into the northernmost part of Gaza for the past month, tens of thousands of Palestinians under Israeli siege are rationing their last lentils and flour to survive. As bombardment pounds around them, some say they risk their lives by venturing out in search of cans of food in the rubble of destroyed homes. Thousands have staggered out of the area, hungry and thin, into Gaza City, where they find the situation little better. One hospital reports seeing thousands of children suffering from malnutrition. A nutritionist said she treated a pregnant woman wasting away at just 40 kilograms (88 pounds). “We are being starved to force us to leave our homes,” said Mohammed Arqouq, whose family of eight is determined to stay in the north, weathering Israel’s siege. “We will die here in our homes.” - AP
Qatar has told the leaders of Hamas to leave the country following pressure from Washington, in a significant shift in policy by the Gulf state. The request was made around 10 days ago after intense discussions with US officials, according to one person familiar with the matter. The gas-rich state has hosted Hamas’s political office in its capital, Doha, since 2012, when Syria’s civil war forced it to leave its base in Damascus, and the US asked Qatar to open a channel of communication with the Palestinian group. Doha became a crucial interlocutor in hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas following the militant group’s deadly attack on southern Israel in October 2023, in which it killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials. A person familiar with the matter said Hamas figures in Qatar would relocate to Turkey. The country has long harboured Hamas political operatives and since the start of the war in Gaza, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been vocal in his support for the group - FT
Israel sent several chartered planes to Amsterdam to bring back Israeli soccer fans after they were attacked following a match on November 7 by what Mayor Femke Halsema described as "anti-Semitic hit-and-run squads." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incidents "anti-Semitic attacks" as his office announced that the Israeli airlines El Al and Israir have set up special flights for free on November 8 and 9 to do the job. Video posted online also purported to show Israeli fans chanting anti-Arab slogans in the streets ahead of the game. Maccabi fans are known to have used similar chants in Israel at recent matches there. Amsterdam police said that 62 people were detained following the violence, with 10 in custody on November 8 in connection with the clashes -- which left five people hospitalized -- in the center of Amsterdam between young locals and Israeli supporters who had come to watch Maccabi Tel Aviv's game against Ajax Amsterdam in the Europa League competition - RFE/RL
Americans started furiously researching how to move to a different country as a looming second Donald Trump presidency was confirmed this week. Google searches for “move to Canada” spiked 1,270 percent in the 24 hours after East Coast polls closed Tuesday, according to Reuters, while similar queries about moving to New Zealand jumped almost 2,000 percent and those for Australia increased 820 percent. A Google official told the news agency that late Wednesday on the East Coast, searches about emigrating to those three countries were at an all-time high. While Google doesn’t disclose raw numbers, data from New Zealand’s immigration site showed around 25,000 new U.S. users visited on Nov. 7—compared to just 1,500 on the same day last year. Evan Green, a managing partner at Green and Spiegel—the oldest immigration law firm—similarly reported being inundated with interest. “Every half hour there is a new email enquiry,” Green told Reuters. - Daily Beast
